The number of securities advancing far outnumbering those declining on Wednesday in trading on the Junior Market, but the Index slipped 1.15 points to close at 2,464.04. At the conclusion of market activities, the prices of 21 securities advanced, 6 declined and 6 remained unchanged.
Trading closed with 33 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 3,008,593 units valued at $9,244,861 compared to 4,739,302 units valued at $9,995,916 from 32 securities on Tuesday. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 9 based on 2020-21 earnings.
Trading ended with an average of 91,169 units at $280,147 for each security traded in contrast to 148,103 units for an average of $312,372 on Tuesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to units 133,330 valued at $367,276 and previously 139,654 units valued at 380,345. In contrast, April closed with an average of 447,863 units valued at $1,028,076 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows one stock ended with the bid higher than its last selling price and two with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial exchanged 4,113 units and gained 7 cents to end at $22.08, AMG Packaging lost 11 cents in the swapping of 60 shares to close $1.78, Blue Power closed trading of 25,000 units and added 5 cents to finish at $3.45.
Caribbean Assurance Brokers advanced 1 cent to $2.20 with 18,768 units changing hands, Caribbean Cream closed 9 cents higher at $2.60 trading 23,300 stock units, Caribbean Flavours climbed 50 cents and exchanged 600 shares to settle at $9.50. Caribbean Producers rose 13 cents to end at $2.48 with 583,415 shares changing hands, Dolphin Cove dipped 80 cents in the trading of 500 units to close at $7, Elite Diagnostic climbed 42 cents and exchanged 3,650 shares to settle at $3.62. Everything Fresh ended the day rising 12 cents to 82 cents after investors switched ownership of 19,950 shares, Express Catering jumped 11 cents and exchanged 2,819 shares to finish at $3.51, Fontana closed 3 cents higher at $5.48 with 74,481 units traded. Fosrich ended with a loss of 1 cent at $3.79 with 2,314 shares changing hands, General Accident rose 26 cents in exchanging 630,068 stock units to close at $5, Honey Bun rose 6 cents to $5.55 with 7,596 shares trading. iCreate closed 2 cents higher at 44 cents with 25,000 stock units switching owners, Indies Pharma climbed 5 cents and exchanged 42,298 shares to settle at $2.30, Jetcon declined by 9 cents to settle at 80 cents with 33,915 units crossing the market. 
Knutsford Express exchanged 9,900 shares to finish at $7.50 after falling $1.47, Lasco Distributors closed trading of 76,558 units and gained 15 cents to end at $3.25, Lasco Financial gained 10 cents to close at $2.70 with an exchange of 7,707 shares. Lasco Manufacturing added 1 cent to close at $3.99 with 64,598 shares traded, Limners and Bards climbed 15 cents and exchanged 32,912 shares to settle at $1.95, Lumber Depot slipped 1 cent to $1.13 with 199,124 stock units changing hands. MailPac Group ended 3 cents higher at $1.92 in the exchange of 711,639 shares, SSL Venture jumped 15 cents and swapped 4,286 shares to finish at 90 cents and Stationery and Office Supplies closed 6 cents higher at $6.26, with 22,645 stock units crossing the exchange.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.
Caribbean Cream climbed 22 cents in exchange of 138,754 shares to settle at $2.51, 
The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 8.8 based on 2020-21 earnings. Investors exchanged 3,532,717 units valued at $11,173,927 compared to 4,856,519 units at $16,938,454 on Friday. 
Caribbean Cream ended exchanging 24,266 stock units, after rising 29 cents to end at $2.29. Derrimon Trading lost 10 cents, with 1,500 shares crossing the exchange at $2.05, Elite Diagnostic climbed 39 cents to $3.50, trading 3,617 stock units. Everything Fresh gained 9 cents in transferring ownership of 11,541 shares at 89 cents. Express Catering inched 6 cents higher after exchanging 23,000 shares at $3.40, Fontana fell 25 cents to close at $5, after swapping 898,165 shares, Fosrich climbed 25 cents and exchanged 1,500 shares at $3.45. General Accident closed trading of 167,388 units and gained 19 cents to end at $4.70, Honey Bun rose 44 cents higher to $5.59, with 48,863 stock units trading, iCreate inched 1 cent up and after an exchange of 11,551 shares at 43 cents. Indies Pharma ended trading with 79,992 shares, after rising 25 cents to end at $2.30, Iron Rock Insurance climbed 53 cents and exchanged 124,398 shares at $2.69, 
Jetcon Corporation fell 15 cents to close at a 52 weeks’ low of 65, in swapping of 14,398 shares. Knutsford Express dipped 1.34 cents in trading of 4,000 units at $7.64, Lasco Distributors climbed 16 cents and exchanged 5,216 shares at $3.21, Limners and Bards closed 16 cents higher at $1.95, with 9,633 stock units trading. Lumber Depot closed trading of 135,602 units and gained 3 cents to end at $1.14, Mailpac Group closed trading of 1,075,563 units and gained 20 cents to end at $1.85, Main Event closed trading of 11,089 units and gained 39 cents to end at $4.89. Medical Disposables close with a loss of 5 cents at $6.25, swapping of 25,576 shares, Stationery and Office Supplies closed 10 cents higher at $6.15, with 3,603 stock units changing hands and tTech gained 2 cents and exchanged 18 shares at $4.75.
The market is moving into a period where prices tend to move slightly downward until early July when it usually, starts a slow recovery, in this regard, first quarter results are going to be important for the market’s direction for a few weeks. Information management presents current and future business developments that will be critical in informing investors.
Wisynco Group generated EPS of 78 cents vs 61 cents for the nine months to March. General Accident released 2019 audited accounts that showed for the first time the impact of the acquisition of their 55 percent interest in the Trinidad based Motor One insurance company at $238 million.
This week’s focus: Seprod released first quarter results after trading closed on Friday, with ongoing operating profits more than doubling from $312 million to $632 million for the 2020 first quarter, with EPS of 86 cents. Revenues climbed 6 percent from continuing operations to $9.14 billion, an increase of $544 million. The big improvement arose from the closure of the sugar manufacturing operations and improvement in profit margin. The Sugar operations generated a loss of nearly $140 million in 2019 and just $15 million in the latest quarter while gross profit margin jumped to 30 percent from 26.6 percent in 2019. The first quarter results are in line with ICInsider.com’s forecast of $4 per share earnings for this year and put the PE at just 11 times current year’s earnings.
The average projected gain for the IC TOP 10 stocks is 338 percent, for the Junior Market and 139 percent for the JSE Main Market, based on 2020-21 earnings.
Trading concluded with 35 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 4,856,519 units valued at $16,938,454 compared to 2,370,191 units valued at $6,835,545 from 27 securities on Thursday. Market activities ended with the prices of 10 securities rising, 17 declining and eight holding firm. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 8.6 based on 2020-21 earnings.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows five stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and three with lower offers.
Lasco Distributors closed 16 cents lower in exchanging 406,571 shares to close at $3.05, Lasco Financial finished $2.60 after losing 10 cents and swapping 18,500 units, Lasco Manufacturing fell by 2 cents to $3.85 with 9,950 units changing hands. Limners and Bards slipped 1 cent after exchanging 9,144 units to end at $1.79, Lumber Depot closed 3 cents lower at $1.11 with 33,771 stock units trading, MailPac Group traded 210,434 shares to settle at $1.65 after losing 2 cents. Main Event rose 25 cents to end at $4.50 with the ownership transfer of 8,264 shares, Paramount was down 4 cents to $1.95 with 16,434 units traded, SSL Venture slipped 13 cents and exchanged 204 units to end at 75 cents and tTech lost 2 cents to close at $4.73 with a mere 54 units crossing the exchange.
Rising and declining stocks were evenly spread at ten each, with six ending unchanged. At the close with the index, adding a mere 9.28 points to close at 2,369.78 and only partially reversed the 36.90 points fall on Wednesday and the market’s PE ratio closed at 8.7 times 2020-21 earnings.
At the close of the market, Blue Power finished 10 cents higher at $3.64 with 45,200 stock units traded, Caribbean Cream fell 18 cents to settle at a 52 weeks’ low of $1.82 with an exchange of 14,355 shares, Caribbean Producers shed 10 cents in the swapping of 433,307 units to end at $2.30. Elite Diagnostic closed trading of 9,000 units and gained 11 cents to finish at $3.11, Express Catering gained one cent to end at $3.36, swapping 10,511 shares in the process, Fontana climbed 17 cents and exchanged 63,877 shares to settle at $5.07. General Accident closed 2 cents higher at $4.02 with 779,926 stock units changing hands, Honey Bun declined 10 cents in trading of 84,000 units to finish at $4.90, iCreate fell 4 cents to 40 cents with 29,297 units crossing the exchange. Indies Pharma shed 13 cents in the exchange of 29,379 units to close at $2.25, ISP Finance closed 9 cents higher at $15.99, with 500 stock units traded,
Jetcon Corporation gained one cent to end at 87 cents, after swapping 125,336 shares. Lasco Distributors closed trading of 40,920 units and gained 21 cents to end at $3.21, Lasco Financial rose 10 cents to $2.70 with an exchange of 500 shares, Lasco Manufacturing declined 7 cents to settle at $3.87 in trading 3,000 units. Limners and Bards slipped one cent to $1.80 with 246,685 stock units changing hands, Lumber Depot climbed 9 cents and exchanged 62,061 shares to close at $1.14, MailPac Group ended with a loss of one cent at $1.67 with 340,725 stock units traded. Main Event transferred 18,100 shares to close at $4.25 after falling 64 cents and Paramount Trading ended with a loss of 1 cent at $1.99 with 900 stock units crossing the exchange.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading on Wednesday was better than the three to one reading the day before with four stocks now just ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and just one with a lower offer.
Caribbean Assurance Brokers slipped 1 cent to $2.18 with an exchange of 1,500 units. Caribbean Cream ended with a loss of 1 cent at $2 with 37,713 stock units changing hands, Derrimon Trading shed 10 cents in trading 40,000 units to finish at $1.80, Elite Diagnostic dropped 55 cents to $3 with 130,715 units crossing the exchange. Everything Fresh shed 9 cents in the trading 13,500 units to settle at 71 cents, Express Catering exchanged 44,486 shares and gained 1 cent to finish at $3.35, Fontana ended market activity 39 cents lower at $4.90 with 248,422 shares changing hands. Fosrich declined 1 cent to settle at $3.84 with 22,637 stock units traded, General Accident lost 43 cents in the exchange of 1,002,770 units to close at $4, Honey Bun dived $1 to $5 with 158,100 shares changing hands. Jamaican Teas fell 19 cents in the trading of 182,641 units to end at $3.99, Jetcon Corporation shed 19 cents to finish at 86 cents with 249,280 shares exchanged, Knutsford Express climbed $1.77 to settle at $8.98 with 103 shares changing hands. 
Lasco Distributors fell 5 cents in the trading 37,489 units to close at $3, Lasco Financial lost 10 cents to settle at $2.60 trading 11,650 units, Lasco Manufacturing slipped 5 cents to $3.94 with an exchange of 10,010 shares. Limners and Bards finished at $1.81 after falling 9 cents and swapping 24,994 shares, Lumber Depot lost 4 cents in the exchange of 122,067 units to settle at $1.05, Medical Disposables closed trading of 98,399 units and gained 31 cents to end at $6.30. Paramount Trading gained 2 cents to end at $2 with 34,000 units changing hands, SSL Venture climbed 15 cents and traded 3,392 shares to close at 88 cents and Stationery and Office Supplies dipped 25 cents to $6.05 with 29,131 units crossing the exchange.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The market closed with negative sentiments, with the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading showing just one stock ending with the bid higher than the last selling price and seven with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial dropped $3.90 in trading 200 shares to settle at $22.10, AMG Packaging added 1 cent to close at $1.66 with 37,605 stock units exchanged, Blue Power declined by 55 cents in the swapping of 44,143 units to end at $3.20. Caribbean Cream rose 1 cent in exchanging 50,000 shares to close at $2.01, Caribbean Producers declined by 11 cents to settle at $2.40 in the swapping of 250,367 shares, Derrimon Trading fell 2 cents to $1.90 with an exchange of 115,538 units. Express Catering ended with a loss of 1 cent at $3.34 with 6,229 stock units changing hands, Fontana closed 29 cents higher after trading 233,655 shares to end at $5.29, Fosrich lost 4 cents in the exchange of 1,500 shares to settle at $3.85. General Accident closed trading of 1,241,712 units and gained 27 cents to end at $4.43, Honey Bun finished 5 cents higher at $6 with 120,638 units changing hands, iCreate ended the day at 44 cents, after gaining 2 cents and exchanging 68,754 stock units. Indies Pharma closed trading of 25,051 units and gained 19 cents to end at $2.38, Iron Rock Insurance dropped 48 cents to $2.16 in the swapping of 7,966 shares, Jamaican Teas climbed 2 cents and exchanged 35,234 shares to settle at $4.18. Knutsford Express shed $1.78 in trading of 25,134 units to finish at $7.21, 
Lasco Distributors closed 5 cents higher at $3.05, with 146,146 stock units crossing the exchange, Lasco Financial picked up 30 cents, exchanging 1,000 shares to end at $2.70. Lasco Manufacturing slipped 1 cent to $3.99 with 33,640 stock units changing hands, Limners and Bards dipped 3 cents in trading of 55,556 units to end at $1.90, Lumber Depot shed 5 cents in the swapping of 385,452 units to close at $1.09. MailPac Group climbed 1 cent to $1.68 after an exchange of 5,104,090 shares, Main Event jumped by $1.02 to settle at $4.89 with 1,100 shares changing hands, Paramount Trading lost 2 cents in trading 135 units to close at $1.98 and SSL Venture declined by 19 cents to settle at 73 cents with 396,000 stock units crossing the exchange.
At the close of market activities with 31 securities changed hands, with the prices of 12 securities advanced, 12 declined and seven remained unchanged and the average PE of Junior Market. Stocks ended at 8.9 times 2020-21 earnings. Trading ended, resulting in an exchange of 3,914,568 units valued at $10,441,625 compared to 6,671,271 units valued at $14,495,961 on Friday.
Carib Assurance Brokers exchanged 91,717 shares and fell 1 cent to close at $2.19. Caribbean Cream closed with a loss of 15cents at $2, after the swapping of 550,000 shares, Caribbean Producers closed 1 cent higher at $2.51, with 257,834 stock units trading, Consolidated Bakeries gained 18 cents to end at $1.69, transferring 644 units. Derrimon Trading declined by 9cents to settle at $1.92, Fontana fell by 28 cents in trading 395,419 units at $5, General Accident lost 33cents in trading of 440,645 units at $4.16, GWest Corporation ended with 1,000 shares crossing through the market, after rising 2 cents to end at 90 cents. Honey Bun closed trading of 3,726 units and gained 15 cents to settle at $5.95, iCreate dipped 4 cents in trading of 282,100 units at 42 cents. Indies Pharma shed 21cents in transferring 25,044 units at $2.19. Iron Rock Insurance closed trading of 88,386 units and gained 54 cents to end at $2.64, Jamaican Teas climbed 14 cents and exchanged 253,859 shares at $4.16, Jetcon Corporation closed 19 cents higher at $1.05, with 29,000 stock units trading. Knutsford Express ended trading with 4,906 shares, after rising 49 cents to end at $8.99. 
Lasco Distributors closed with 66,146 shares, after rising 2 cents to end at $3, Lasco Financial closed market activity trading 15,365 shares to close at $2.40 after shedding 30 cents. Lasco Manufacturing closed 33 cents higher at $4, with 34,040 stock units trading, Limners and Bards ended market activity exchanging 225,138 shares to close at $1.93, after falling by 2 cents, Lumber Depot ended with a loss of 1 cent at $1.14 with 193,918 stock units changing hands. MailPac Group finished with a loss of 1 cent at $1.67 with an exchange742,719 stock units and tTech gained $1.04 to end at$4.75 in trading 400 shares.
Caribbean Cement and NCB Financial released first-quarter results in the past week with lower profit than the previous year’s March quarter. As if investors expected the outturn, the stock prices did not seem to react to them.
The three top Junior Market stocks with the potential to gain between 344 to 660 percent by 2021 are Caribbean Producers leading, followed by Lasco Financial and KLE Group. In the Main Market, Radio Jamaica continues to lead, followed by Berger Paints and JMMB Group, with projected gains of 173 to 213 percent.
Revenues grew around 12 percent from 2013 to 2016, then increased to 17.4 percent for 2018 and 14.5 percent for 2019. The company has an excellent management team that is growth-oriented as such investors can look forward to revenues growing in the 15-20 percent range going forward. In pursuit of this objective, the company is putting in place additional storage facilities to accommodate a robust expansion of sales. Investors should not rule out the possibility that they could expand from acquisitions as well as was the case with the addition of the business making the